Astonishing X-Men #48Review

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The Astonishing line gets a new creative team.

By Joey Esposito

Though the stint of Greg Pak was short-lived (but continuing, in a way, in the new X-Treme X-Men), Marjorie Liu has stepped in to take control of Marvel's continuity-lite (kinda) X-book to satisfactory success. Astonishing X-Men #48 isn't concerned with plot as much as it is establishing its cast, and that's fine by me. Liu's strong suit is in character work and that pays off here. Of particular interest is Northstar and his boyfriend Kyle, whose spatty back-and-forth conversation strikes the humor chord because it's so down-to-Earth and realistic. What workaholic can't relate with having a significant other that isn't happy with the amount of time you spend at work?

Similarly, the conversation between Gambit and Cecelia is naturalistic and sweet. But this isn't a character study, right? It's an X-book! Shouldn't there be explosions, or whatever? Not to fear, Liu provides you doses of that as well, though that's where this issue falters a bit. Liu constructs the issue as a mystery; it opens with a very jarring flash-forward involving our main cast and then scoots back in time to show us the setup. The pacing feels a bit off in that we never get to see any inkling of the opening scenario come into play again. Other events occur, sure, but the actions at the start are so specific that it would've helped the issue to have some sort of payoff to the cold open of the book. That said, I don't doubt that the next chapter will deliver on that front.

Mike Perkins handles art duties here, and does so with great attention to detail in his environments. Though some of his body language is somewhat stilted, he makes up for it with dynamic facial expressions and excellent use of shadows and angles to elicit the desired emotions. With most of this issue being talking heads, Perkins deserves much credit for keeping the scenes from getting stale; his choice of framing never grows tired and he positions the camera in just the right way to give Liu's dialog the most impact and resonance.

It's got some kinks when being read in periodical format, but plans for a big story seem to be in motion. For as much as we often complain about how many X-books Marvel puts out, at least we can also say that a majority of them are solid, worthwhile reads.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter, or find him on IGN. You may or may not discover a profound number of cat pictures.

Astonishing X-Men [2012] #48

New Creative Team! Best-Selling Author Marjorie Liu And Mike Perkins (The Stand). The X-Men Return To New York City, But It's Not A Social Call.